Saugatuck StoryFest Events
Write Mind, Write Body: Writing For and About Oneself
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A Full-Day StoryFest Program
presented in collaboration with the Writing Center at the Westport Center for Senior Activities led by Jan Bassin
September 28, 2019
The act of writing can be transformative, yielding tremendous personal benefit to the writer. This dynamic and interactive program focuses on both the well-being and craft rewards of encountering our own narratives. It is open to people of all ages and all levels of experience with writing, but most specifically those in their second or third acts.
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Registration Required ($10 registration fee includes the full-day program and lunch). PLEASE REGISTER HERE
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10:30 - 11:45 am
Write Poetry (by chance?): Playing with Metaphor
Featuring: Taylor Mali
Location: The Westport Center for Senior Activities
​You may have grown up being told (as poet Taylor Mali was) that “a metaphor is a way of comparing two things,” which is ultimately a misleading and inaccurate definition of what a metaphor is and why it is employed in every human culture on earth. It’s like saying an automobile is “a way of burning fossil fuel.” Metaphors are really more like temporary figurative secret codes for saying one thing but meaning another. Metaphor Dice are an addictively imaginative way to think and write more figuratively, and Taylor Mali is the man who invented them. No experience necessary! Math teachers welcome (Taylor was a math teacher)!
12:00 - 12:45 pm
Lunch
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1:00 -
2:00 p.m.
Writing For and About Oneself
A Conversation with Sonya Huber
Location: The Westport Center for Senior Activities
Join author, teacher and Director of Fairfield University's MFA in Creative Writing, Sonya Huber as she speaks with local writing teacher Jan Bassin about her own writing life as well as the role she has seen writing play in the lives of others. Ms. Huber is a disabled writer with rheumatoid disease, a longtime activist and the author of five books, including the essay collection Pain Woman Takes Your Keys, and Other Essays from a Nervous System. Her other books include Opa Nobody, Cover Me: A Health Insurance Memoir, The Evolution of Hillary Rodham Clinton and a textbook, The Backwards Research Guide for Writers. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Creative Nonfiction, and Brevity.
2:15 -
3:45 p.m.
Narrative Healing Workshop: a full body, full spirit storytelling experience
With Lisa Weinert
Location: The Westport Center for Senior Activities
Open to all bodies and abilities. This workshop offers a holistic and freeing storytelling experience to unlock the stories we carry in our bodies and foster creative exploration and compassionate listening. This 90-minute afternoon workshop will include a gentle yoga practice, guided meditation, writing prompts and listening exercises. Best to wear comfortable clothing.